The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council not replacing some trees. This is because there is not enough injustice to warrant investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council has broken its undertaking to replace two trees on land behind his property. He says this affects his amenity.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant. I looked at online maps and photographs of the area. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X dealt with the Council about this matter at various points between 2015 and 2019. Any complaint about those events is late. I do not see good reason to investigate those events now, nor would we be likely to achieve anything meaningful by doing so. I also consider it unlikely we could reach a clear enough view now about events some years ago.
In June 2021 the Council told Mr X it would replace the trees and expected to do so in late autumn 2021. Mr X says the Council did not replace the trees, so he has complained to us now. The complaint about this is not late.
We do not necessarily investigate every complaint that a council is at fault. As paragraph 3 explained, we must consider whether any alleged or actual fault caused the person complaning a significant enough injustice to justify the Ombudsman investigating.
Here, the impact on Mr X is the absence of two trees on land behind his garden. I appreciate replacement trees might improve Mr X’s outlook and the appearance of the land behind his house. Mr X also suggests they would preserve a rustic feel to the area. However, I do not consider the absence of replacement trees amounts to a significant enough injustice to Mr X, or anyone else, to warrant the Ombudsman devoting time and public money to pursuing the complaint.
The Council apologised to Mr X for faults in its complaint-handling about the matter. Any investigation by us would be unlikely to recommend more than that for the complaint-handling. Moreover, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matter complained of has not caused him enough injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman